Beating the 3D Nav Map

[Landorin]

Hello,

I bought Evochron Mercenary recently and I really like it (though it's not really beginner friendly).
I have some troubles with the navigation map, however and I hope you guys can help me.

1) it seems I cannot see the full quadrant map. If I'm fairly in the "middle" it looks okay:


Let's say I flew to the very "left" area of a quadrant and fully zoom out, I can't see all planets anymore which can make it difficult to find a specific destination:


Also, the descriptions get very cluttered and if I zoom in with right mouse button I only get to see a single cube.

Is there no way to scroll to a side in that map unless fully zoomed in? I really miss that option!

2) I have trouble finding a specific location, e.g. if I transport a passenger:
(this shows pearl station but before the guy wanted to "command alpha" where I had no idea where that could be).

So I put in coordinates X:3500 Y:0 Z: -1800 and find myself somewhere in the same quadrant and nothing interesting around me.
Then I tried the same coordinates with SX, SY, SZ and I kept doing hyperjumps forever with autopilot, apparently not leaving the quadrant.
I learned X, Y, Z are for in sector coordinates while SX, SY, SZ are for outside the sector (right?).

What am I doing wrong here? How do I find out where a location is? It'd be nice to know if a destination is within the same or neighboring quadrant before accepting any contract or even where it is exactly so I can use my own navigation and use the quadrant gates.

[DaveK]

Hi Landorin - welcome to the game and to the forum!

Navigation is one of the harde rthings to get your head round; SX, Sy etc tell you which sector you are in - PX, PY where in that sector you are!

If you go onto SeeJay's website you can download a Hints & Tips Guide that gives advice and tutorials about Navigation (and lots of other things!)

http://evochron.junholt.se/

[Marvin]

I'm pretty sure you don't mean the "quadrant" map ... you mean the basic Nav Map ... showing individual sectors.

[Maarschalk]

Hi Landorin, welcome to the game and forum......Hope to see you out there some time!....

[Marvin]

One of the most asked questions is: Why, when I right-click on something on the Nav Map, I zoom in on an empty sector?

Here's why.

In the screen shot directly below, you see nine sectors of the Nav Map. Notice the SX, SY and SZ windows for the Destination Position. Also make note of the player's intended jump location: a trade station to the right of the player's current position. As the player, I did not right-click on the target ... I used the standard left click.




Here's why. Check the screen shot below.




The first screen shot was of the Nav Map as seen from above (Top View). The second screen shot is of the Nav Map as seen from the side (Rear View). Notice where the target (trade station) is now? It's above the player's current location. Compare that with where the player (me) placed the jump cursor.

Why is the cursor where it is? Because I've only set it in the horizontal. If I had right-clicked (instead of left-clicking), the view would've zoomed in on the sector where you see the cursor. Which, as it happens, is empty. (The gate you see in the Rear View is actually in another sector (check it out again, in the Top View).

So, what you need to do, when your target is "out of plane" (above or below you on the Y axis), is go to Rear View and left-click on the target. As shown below. Notice the change in SY Destination Position.




Then you can switch back to the Top View and right-click to zoom in on the correct sector (and target).

[Maarschalk]

Excelent Marvin, this should be stickied in the tutorials.......

[Viper]

Really good work Marvin, I'll add this to the list of links in that post I'm putting together. Thanks!

Edit:
I can't even type a bloody one-line post without editing it lol.

[Edited on 1-26-2012 by Viper]

[Capt_Caveman]

lmao

[Marvin]

I can't even type a bloody one-line post without editing it lol.

Probably because you're in a rush to get back to the game. Hard to do with all these new topics. I feel your pain.